Perry Mason: Chapter Six
July 29, 2020 4:27 PM - Season 1, Episode 6 - Subscribe
The trial begins and a damning witness testimony takes center stage.
summary from HBO.com: "Emily's trial begins and a damning witness testimony takes center stage, while Mason attempts to recover from a shaky start. Meanwhile, in their search for clues that might lead to an exoneration, Della and Strickland investigate a potential connection between Detective Ennis and Charlie's kidnappers. Later, Mason considers betraying Drake's trust to give his client an edge in court, and Birdy urges Sister Alice to scrap her Easter Sunday plan before it's too late." (summary above the fold shortened as to avoid spoilers)
summary from HBO.com: "Emily's trial begins and a damning witness testimony takes center stage, while Mason attempts to recover from a shaky start. Meanwhile, in their search for clues that might lead to an exoneration, Della and Strickland investigate a potential connection between Detective Ennis and Charlie's kidnappers. Later, Mason considers betraying Drake's trust to give his client an edge in court, and Birdy urges Sister Alice to scrap her Easter Sunday plan before it's too late." (summary above the fold shortened as to avoid spoilers)
The only things I really liked about the first few episodes were (a) Officer Drake, (b) Della's girlfriend and (c) what a terrible private eye Perry Mason is - seriously, his friend is much better at that job. I don't have any prior exposure to Perry Mason, but have absorbed "Perry Mason = great lawyer" from cultural osmosis. I am happy to learn he has failed his way into his excellence.
It's definitely getting better now that they're at trial. I feel like they wanted to save most of the big reveals for trial, but that made the first half of the season drag.
If they kill off Officer Drake, I'm out for future seasons though. I'll just rewatch The Americans to get my sad Matthew Rhys fix in that case.
posted by the primroses were over at 1:25 PM on July 30, 2020
It's definitely getting better now that they're at trial. I feel like they wanted to save most of the big reveals for trial, but that made the first half of the season drag.
If they kill off Officer Drake, I'm out for future seasons though. I'll just rewatch The Americans to get my sad Matthew Rhys fix in that case.
posted by the primroses were over at 1:25 PM on July 30, 2020
We're on ep 3, and when we're done I plan to post a full season thread unless there already is one, because it feels like people aren't that into discussing the individual episodes. But fwiw I thought 3 was better than 1 or 2.
And I love the Sister Alice character. After reading up on her real-life inspiration, I kinda just want a show about her.
posted by showbiz_liz at 1:45 PM on July 30, 2020 [3 favorites]
And I love the Sister Alice character. After reading up on her real-life inspiration, I kinda just want a show about her.
posted by showbiz_liz at 1:45 PM on July 30, 2020 [3 favorites]
If they kill off Officer Drake, I'm out for future seasons though.
Paul Drake was lawyer Mason’s private detective. So, unless they intend to radically diverge from canon, officer Drake lives.
posted by Thorzdad at 6:07 PM on July 30, 2020 [4 favorites]
Paul Drake was lawyer Mason’s private detective. So, unless they intend to radically diverge from canon, officer Drake lives.
posted by Thorzdad at 6:07 PM on July 30, 2020 [4 favorites]
Why have Hazel wear gloves in the office? Did I miss the explanation? The byplay with Pete was fun. Is there more to it than that?
posted by kingless at 8:11 AM on July 31, 2020
posted by kingless at 8:11 AM on July 31, 2020
Why have Hazel wear gloves in the office? Did I miss the explanation?
She's a hand model/hand double. In the episode where she's introduced, Della asks her "how are Myrna's hands?" and she takes off the gloves to reveal a perfect manicure and says "better than the rest of me."
posted by showbiz_liz at 8:52 AM on July 31, 2020 [3 favorites]
She's a hand model/hand double. In the episode where she's introduced, Della asks her "how are Myrna's hands?" and she takes off the gloves to reveal a perfect manicure and says "better than the rest of me."
posted by showbiz_liz at 8:52 AM on July 31, 2020 [3 favorites]
Thanks! I did miss the explanation.
posted by kingless at 7:24 AM on August 1, 2020 [1 favorite]
posted by kingless at 7:24 AM on August 1, 2020 [1 favorite]
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The last comment I made was after Episode 2, when I was getting more optimistic about the show. Unfortunately the next couple of episodes were not so hot. These days I expect a show with this amount of ambition to have interesting characters that I really care about, and John Lithgow's character was just a big collection of clichés who was obviously not going to be in the picture by the end, so it was kind of excruciating waiting for that to play out. No other character, with the exception of Sister Alice, has really felt like more than a collection of standard traits.
That said, the last couple of episodes have picked up a lot, and it's great to see Mason actually start operating in a courtroom (and I am happy to watch Matthew Rhys look sad in a vintage suit for eight hours in any case). I still have the feeling that the whole season would have worked better as six episodes than eight, but now that things are rolling I'm excited for the last two episodes, and hopefully the (now greenlit) season two will move faster and be more interesting now that they've finished the backstory.
posted by dfan at 5:59 PM on July 29, 2020 [2 favorites]